After the Fact Interactive: Rosie to Lucy

by James West Davidson

This module invites students to investigate the dramatic shifts for women from the exigencies of wartime employment symbolized by Rosie the Riveter during World War II to the cultural pressures of domestic life dramatized by the nation's favorite television wife and mother, Lucille Ball. Recent works in women's history and primary sources will show how women faced on one level a turbulent symbolic battle over the ideal of femininity and on another level were coping with surprisingly steady but nonetheless dramatic changes in employment and social conditions.

CD-ROM

First published January 11, 2002

About the author

James West Davidson is a historian, writer, and wilderness paddler. He received his Ph.D. in American history from Yale University and writes full time. He is also co-editor, with Michael Stoff, of New Narratives in American History, a series published by Oxford University Press, as well as the coauthor of textbooks in American history. These include "Experience History," "After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection," and "US: A Narrative History" for the college level and "The American Nation" for the middle grades.